I think the panelists said it all pretty well, so what's an actuary going to say on his favorite subject? Congratulate the panelists. John was pretty comprehensive in his points on the pros and cons of raising the retirement age, and Ann Combs had some great responses to some of John's concerns. For example, employers may need to hire or retain more older workers in the future (2001 to 2030, or so) when so many baby boomers are retiring. She also suggested that we need to improve the incentives for older people to keep working if they want to, such as (1) eliminating the universally-disliked earnings test (even some actuaries don't like it) and (2) modifying pension laws to encourage phased retirement.
I would also add that if we raise the retirement age, then we would need to relax the rules at the oldest ages for qualifying for a disability benefit. In fact, Social Security already does that as people get closer to age 65.
In addition, John pointed out that raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut. People who are concerned for disabled people will be happy to note that it won't cut disability benefits. John is correct that it will cut survivor benefits, which affects women more, but I would add that since women live longer than men on average, raising the retirement age affects them proportionately less than men.
Sam not only discussed retirement issues, he listed several changes, which in total could reach a 100% fix for Social Security's current financial problems. (Congratulations. He's the first panelist to get that far.) However, Sam also then suggested a carve out of some payroll taxes to go to individual retirement accounts, so I'm assuming he may have some other changes to pay for the carve out.
